


If I die, before I wake

by c1aire_h



Category: IT (Movies - Muschietti), IT - Stephen King
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst with a Happy Ending, Bad Parents Maggie Tozier & Wentworth Tozier, Bullying, Deadlights (IT), Eddie Kaspbrak Loves Richie Tozier, Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier-centric, Gay Eddie Kaspbrak, Gay Richie Tozier, Homophobia, How Do I Tag, Hurt Richie Tozier, Hurt/Comfort, Injury, M/M, Mentioned Henry Bowers, Mild Blood, Mild Gore, Nightmares, Nothing should be worse than movie, Panic Attacks, Pennywise is His Own Warning (IT), Richie Tozier Loves Eddie Kaspbrak, Richie Tozier Needs a Hug, Richie Tozier humor, Richie Tozier is a Mess, Richie Tozier's Trashmouth, Temporary Character Death, don’t read if you think it could trigger you, f slur used twice, paul Bunyan statue
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-16
Updated: 2020-04-16
Packaged: 2021-03-01 22:34:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,577
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23674690
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/c1aire_h/pseuds/c1aire_h
Summary: Richie is killed by Paul Bunyan in 1962 but pennywise left his soul or what not who knows and Richie wakes up 27 years later and befriends Eddie
Relationships: Eddie Kaspbrak & Richie Tozier, Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier, The Losers Club & Richie Tozier
Comments: 5
Kudos: 49





	If I die, before I wake

**Author's Note:**

> Been working on this for a while now hope you like it :))  
> Title is from Mother by Courtney Love sorry not sorry  
> Also the italics are Richie’s writing until near the end where it’s his dream

In 1962 a boy went missing. His name was Richie Tozier. His parents made posters... but only after they realized it would reflect poorly on them if they didn’t. His posters were put up all over town, slapped carelessly over other missing persons flyers. He was last seen by Henry Bowers and his gang who claimed, when Richie saw them, he ran away from them for seemingly no reason. 

In 1962 a boy died. His name was Richie Tozier. His parents got away with not throwing a funeral for him because they never found a body. His posters faded and another flyer was slapped over his within a week. He was last scene by Henry Bowers and his gang running away after Henry called him a ‘fucking faggot’ and threatened to kill him. 

Nobody knew what happened after that. Nobody knew that he ran from the Bowers gang to the park, blinking at the tears in his eyes. Nobody knew that when he got there, he heard a laugh and turned to find a clown standing on the shoulder of the Paul Bunyan statue. Nobody watched him as he ran for his life and certainly nobody watched as he tripped and his fate was sealed. And nobody saw him being impaled by the statue. And he died. There and then in that park. 

Pennywise then took his soul and brought it down to his lair to play a bit more with his last meal. However, the clown was unable to consume this soul like he did with all of the other childrens’. He had gotten too caught up playing with Richie’s soul and now it was too late, he’d have to save him for 27 more years. Pennywise had no problem with that, Richie would be a good snack for when he wakes up. Pennywise begins to get ready for his ‘nap’ when...

“Hey asshole! Are you just going to leave me here or what?” 

...Richie’s big mouth gets the best of him. 

“Oh dirty, dirty Trashmouth. I’m going to leave you for when I next wake up.” Pennywise responds. “And you just reminded me! I can’t have you interrupting my little nap, now can I?”

He takes out a needle and black thread and approaches Richie. 

“Wh-what are you doing” Richie’s spirit stutters out. 

“Just hold still Richie.” Pennywise responds. 

But as pennywise gets closer, Richie moves backwards until he’s against the wall. 

“Stop squirming” the clown says. 

Richie continues, doing his best to get avoid the clown. 

“Fine!” It yells and opens its jaw, face peeling back, to reveal three glowing lights. 

Richie cannot avoid looking at the lights and soon finds himself unable to move as Pennywise approaches him and ties a knot on the end of the thread. He agonizingly slowly sews Richie’s mouth shut leaving Richie with blood streaming down his chin.

“That should be enough to shut up the Trashmouth.” 

So when pennywise went into his 27 year sleep, Richie’s soul was left floating in the deadlights, with blood and tears dripping down his face. 

1989

Eddie’s wake’s up at 6:45, the same time as every other day. He gets dressed and straps on not one, but two fanny packs before heading downstairs for his breakfast. 

“Good morning Eddie-bear! Did you sleep well?” His mom asks

No

“Yes mommy”

He had been having reoccurring nightmares all week. Always the same thing, starring a boy with dark, curly, brown hair and glasses that he’s never seen before. As Eddie moves closer to the boy, he notices a foggy white covering his irises and pupils and that his mouth is sewn shut with thick black thread, blood streaming down from each puncture hole. The boy looks like he’s reaching out for Eddie which should be terrifying, but for some reason, Eddie feels the need to try and help this stranger. Before the shorter boy has a chance to do anything. A white gloves hand comes out of the shadows, grabbing on to the boy’s ankle and pulling him back into the dark, and that’s when Eddie wakes up. 

Every time he has the dream he’s able to get closer to the boy, but not close enough to save him from the gloved hand. It’s not the first time he’s had reoccurring nightmares though. He had one when Bill’s little brother Georgie went missing too, with the same gloved hand grabbing little Georgie’s only arm. Eddie told Stan about it but all he said was to not bring it up around Bill. 

He sits down, eats his breakfast and says goodbye to his mom before he’s out the door. Eddie’s bike’s waiting for him on the side of his house but before he reaches it, he sees a figure in the edge his vision. Every day Eddie and Stan ride their bikes to school together since they live so closeto each other. Eddie is usually the first one outside but Stan must be early today. He turns to look at Stan but nothing’s there so, logically, he goes through a list in his head of all of the diseases he knows that have the symptom of hallucinations until Stan arrives. 

Eddie has a normal day at school and concludes (after some convincing from his friends) he doesn’t have a disease and that it must have been a trick of the light. Everything else is normal up until he goes to bed. He has another nightmare, the same one as before. This time, Eddie was able to get closer to the boy with the glasses. In fact when the gloves hand came back to reach for the boy, Eddie stepped forward grabbing the boy’s hand and pulled him away from it. The boy looked at him with wide eyes that were already looking less white. Eddie was staring at him and holding his hand when he woke up. 

He was staring at the ceiling, contemplating what this meant, when he realized something was touching his hand. He looks over to see the boy from his nightmare and Eddie screams. 

“Who the fuck are you!” Eddie shrieks out. The boy looks as if he’s trying to answer but instead his eyes go wide as he realizes why he can’t open his mouth. 

“How did you get into my room? Why are you here? I thought my mind made you up. Am I hallucinating? Why aren’t you answering my questions?”

The boy rolls his eyes and points to his mouth which is still sewn shut. 

“Oh shit, right. Um... do you want me to try and... cut it?”

Eddie doesn’t know why he’s talking to this boy he found in his room, nor why he’s offering to do something which requires him to move closer to said-boy but he feels like he needs to... protect him? He’s had so many dreams where he was unable to save him and now feels no different. When he looks back at the boy, he’s surprised to see eyes that aren’t white, but are dark brown and the boy is nodding eagerly. 

Eddie grabs out one of his five first-aid kits he keeps in his room and begins cleaning some of the dried blood and tears off of the strangers face. 

“I don’t have anything to numb it with so it’s probably going to hurt... a lot”

The boy nods solemnly. The shorter boy disinfects his scissors and the stranger’s face to the best of his ability before he cuts the thread. He begins taking out the pieces of string causing the boy with glasses to flinch in pain each time.

After removing the last string and disinfecting Eddie says, “I’m guessing it will still hurt to talk for a few days but for now you can use paper and pen to communicate.”

He walks over to his desk and pulls out a spiral and a pen which he hands to the other boy. 

“Who are you?” the hypochondriac asks

The stranger writes on the paper for a a few seconds before showing Eddie,

_ Who are  you _ ?

The taller boy raises an eyebrow at him. 

“Nope we are not playing this game and I asked you first”

The boy huffs out a laugh threw his nose before writing,

_ You’re no fun _

_ My name’s Richie Tozier  _

“Richie. Huh. Ok well I’m Eddie Kaspbrak.”

Richie writes for a few seconds before showing him,

_ Can I call you Eds? _

“Nope, just Eddie”

He holds up his paper

_ Eds! _

“Ugh fine. How did you get here?”

Richie frowns for a second before showing the paper,

_ You brought me here _

“What? No I didn’t!”

_ Last I checked you were the one who grabbed my hand and pulled me here _

“But that was a dream! You can’t just pull someone out of a fucking dream!”

_ Guess I’m just special _

“Heh, in your dreams”

_No Eds in your dreams_

“That was an awful pun”

_ Nah it was perfect.  _

“Why were you in my dream?”

_ Not sure _

_ Does this make me the boy of yours dreams? _

“What?” Eddie’s face goes red, “No! More like boy of my nightmares.”

Richie has to hold himself back from laughing so he won’t hurt his mouth. 

_Ouch Eds gets of on a good one_!

“That’s not my name”

_ What exactly did you see in your nightmares? _

“I saw you with white eyes and in all of my dreams I’d try to reach you but a gloved hand would pull you away. That is, until the last dream I guess.”

_ Clown _

Eddie doesn’t know why that word made shivers go down his back. 

“What?”

_ The gloved hand. It belongs to a clown _

“So let me get this straight. My weird clown nightmares are coming to life?”

_ No, I’m pretty positive I was alive before you started dreaming.  _

“Can you please just explain what’s going on?”

_ I can try _

_ Um long story short-ish, _

_ There’s a clown from space that eats children. It came after me when I was, _

_ let’s say I was hanging out in the park, and it brought the new Paul Bunyan statue to life and it stabbed me and killed me but the clown, pennywise, didn’t eat me but I got stuck in these glowing lights called the deadlights and once in a while I’d see you but the clown would pull me away before I could reach you.  _

“Uhh... ok that’s, that’s a lot”

_ I know _

“What new Paul Bunyan statue?”

_ So I just told you about a killer-space-clown and the only thing you got out of it was that stupid new statue? _

“Its the easiest thing to take in! That statue isn’t new, it’s been there for like 30 years”

_ Uh, no. It’s pretty new, they literally just finished building it like a few weeks ago.  _

“Wait, what year do you think it is?”

_ Well the deadlights made it felt like a century but since I haven’t aged much, if any it’s 1962 or 1963-ish? _

“Richie, it’s 1989”

_ Wait what? _

“You were in the lights for 27 years”

Richie looks shocked for a moment, but then just sad. 

_ Oh.  _

“Hey, your parents could still be alive”

_ I guess so _

“You don’t seem very happy about it”

_ They never treated me well _

Eddie wants to look further into that but doesn’t want to pry. 

“Oh... well, your friends would be a lot older but they’re probably still alive”

_ Didn’t really have any close friends _

“Well that sucks”

Richie huffs out a laugh. 

_ It’s probably for the best _

“Maybe we could be friends I mean... if you want...”

Richie nods vigorously. 

“And you could meet my friends too?”

Richie nods more. 

Eddie looks at the clock. 

“It’s still pretty early so we should probably get some more sleep”

_ Do you have blankets or something that I can use? _

“No. You can just sleep next to me... unless that makes you uncomfortable or something then-“

Richie holds up his notepad. 

_ Getting me in your bed on day one you are quite the lucky lady Eds _ _._

Eddie blushes before saying. 

“That’s not my name fuck-wad”

Richie laughs before climbing into Eddie’s bed and patting the spot beside him for Eddie to lay down. Eddie does so and Richie scratches onto his pad,

_ Night Eds _

To which Eddie responds,

“Night ‘Chee”

And they both fall asleep. 

“Eddiebear! Time to wake up! You don’t want to be late for school!” Eddie’s mom calls from the kitchen. 

Eddie blinks his eyes open and notices his head is laying on the chest of the boy next to him who’s still asleep. Eddie’s face turns red and he quickly moves off of Richie. The second boy slowly blinks his eyes open and smiles at the hypochondriac. 

“You need to hide. My mom will be in here any second”

Richie notices his mouth is healed and says his first words since they’ve met,

“Okay,  Eddiebear.”

Eddie smacks his arm but Richie just smirks before hiding in the closet. 

“Eddiebear were you talking to someone?” his mom asks. 

“No I was just... studying” Eddie responds. 

“Out loud?”

“Yep. It’s supposed to help me remember better.”

“Okay. Just hurry up. You don’t want to be late for school.”

She leaves the room. 

Eddie sighs before saying,

“You can come out now”

Richie comes out of the closet wearing one of Eddie’s sweatshirts and a pair of short shorts.

“Eds there is no way these shorts fit you!”

Eddie blushes. 

“Shut up! Just because they look bad on you doesn’t mean they look bad on me”

“I’m wounded Eds!”

“Beep beep Richie”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means shut up”

“I like it”

“Your not supposed to”

“Sucks to suck”

“I have to go to school, but you can wait here so need to wait here.”

“I can’t go with you?”

“Nope sorry.”

Richie looks disappointed. 

“What am I supposed to do while you’re gone?”

“Do you read comic books?”

“Yeah”

“Have you read Spider-Man?”

“Nope, never heard of him”

Eddie pulls out a thick stack of comics books and hands them to Richie. 

“Here the one on top is the first one and they should be in order. Try not to ruin them.”

“Why Eddie I’d never!”

Richie says in a southern belle accent. 

Eddie just sighs and walks out of the room. 

When Eddie gets back home from school, he goes straight to his room to find his comic books strewn out all over his floor and a big pile of blankets. At the middle of the blanket nest Richie had fallen asleep with his glasses half sitting on his face at a weird angle. 

“Stay back!” Richie yells. 

Eddie steps away in shock. 

“Don’t-“

Richie cuts himself off and starts making muffled sounds like something is keeping his mouth shut. 

Eddie shakes him to wake him up. 

Richie opens his eyes and for a moment they’re white rather then the usual brown. 

“Richie, are you okay?”

Richie bursts into tears and Eddie pulls him into a hug with his head against the smaller boys chest. 

He holds him until the taller boy’s breathing evens out. 

“What happened in your dream ‘Chee?

Richie takes a deep breath. 

“The clown, Pennywise, it got me and it sewed my mouth shut again and It said it would get you too.”

“I’m right here Rich, It didn’t get me and it won’t get you again.”

“I shouldn’t have brought you into this.”

“Last time I checked it wasn’t up to you.”

Richie laughs. 

“Thanks for waking me up”

“Of course! But you should probably know, when you woke up your eyes were white for a moment”

“Oh. I guess that’s from the deadlights. Maybe I’m still linked to It somehow.”

“I’m supposed to meet my friends at the quarry soon, do you want to come?”

“Yes!”

After sneaking past the smaller boy’s mom, Richie hops on the back of Eddie’s bike and they ride to the quarry. 

When they reach the quarry, the other five losers are already there. 

Bill speaks first, “Hey E-Ed-Eddie, who y-your new fr-friend?”

“This is—“

“The names Tozier, Richie Tozier” Richie interrupts. 

“Welcome to the Losers club. I’m Bev, this is Ben, Stan, Bill, and Mike. 

“Nice to meet you” Ben says

“Why, the pleasure’s all mine” Richie says is a southern accent.

“How did you two meet? I’ve never seen you around.” Stan asks. 

“Well it all started with some Twilight Zone shit and—“ Richie starts only for Eddie to slap a hand over his mouth. 

“Ow! Fuck Eds, that just healed” Richie’s says as the newly re-opened scabs around his lips begin to bleed. 

“Shit! Are you ok Rich?” Eddie asks.

“Yeah I’ll be fine, just need to let it heal again”

Eddie takes out the first aid kit from his fannypack and begins cleaning the wounds on Richie’s face. At one point some of the blood gets on Eddie’s hand and all of the losers are shocked when he wipes it off on his shorts rather than freaking out. 

“So Richie, your a James Bond fan?” Bev asks

“Mmhmm” Richie responds. 

“Which one’s your favorite?” 

Richie’s eyes widen at the thought of more Bond movies. 

“Uhh... the first one” Richie answers dumbly. 

“Have you seen the new one yet?” Mike asks.

“Richie’s more of a late 50s’ early 60s’ movie fan” Eddie answers for him. 

Richie nods in agreement. 

“Well Richie, are you gonna jump into the quarry” Bev asks. 

“What? From up here?”

“Yep, it’s tradition for all the new losers”

“Well I’d hate to breaks a tradition” Richie says taking off his clothes and glasses. 

“Are you shitting me? Do you know how many diseases we could get from swimming in there?” Eddie says and realizes how close he is to the edge of the cliff. Richie smirks. 

“Richie don’t you fucking dare-“ Eddie is cut of as Richie shoves him off the cliff before jumping off himself. Soon enough the rest of the losers join them. 

“You idiot! You have an open wound on you fucking face!”

“Don’t worry about lil old me Eds”

“Don’t call me that”

They mess around at the quarry for a while before heading over to the clubhouse. 

“So how did you two meet” Stan asks for the second time. 

“Have any of you noticed an nothing weird happening lately” Eddie asks.

“We’re in Derry. You’d have to be more specific.” Bev says 

“Weird like... supernatural?”

“Ever since G-Georgie went m-missing, I feel like something’s been w-watching me and I saw G-georgie in my basement with a-” Bill stutters. 

“The TV at my house, I’ve over heard a kid’s show talking about playing in the sewers and in the show had some-” Bev starts. 

“A headless child tried to attack me at the library but it turned into a-” Ben cuts himself off. 

“A woman from a painting came to life and changedinto this-“ Stan stops. 

“A door with burnt hands clawing at it and then there was a-” Mike starts. 

“A leper tried to attack me but then I saw this-“ Eddie says. 

“Clown” Richie finishes before turning to Eddie “You didn’t tell me that you saw It outside of your nightmares!”

“I didn’t think it was a big deal”

“‘Not a big deal’ you know what that thing did to me!” Richie yells. “What if that happened to you, Eds! It could have happened again it could have-have—“

Richie breathing turns frantic. 

“Richie, I need you to copy my breathing, ok?” Eddie moves Richie’s hand over his chest and moves the two of them to the hammock. 

“In-1-2-3-4 out-1-2-3-4”

They repeat that a few times. 

“Your ok Richie”

His breathing picks up again for a moment. 

“I’m ok, I’m here”

The taller boy’s breathing eventually evens out and Eddie pulls his head into his chest where he eventually falls asleep.

“E-Eddie,” Bill whispers, “w-what happened t-to him?”

“Richie has had it... hard, for lack of better words. The clown, It’s gotten him before” Eddie responds. 

“What do you mean by ‘got him’?” Ben asks. 

“It... It killed him” Eddie whispers back. 

“Wait, if it killed him, how is he, ya know, here?” Bev asks. 

“After the clown came for him the first time, his soul got stuck in these lights, called the deadlights and they preserved his soul while the clown went into a sort of hibernation” Eddie explains. 

“How long?” Stan asks. 

“What?”

“How long was It in hibernation?” Stan clarifies. 

“Twenty seven years” Eddie mumbles

“Wait. So he’s been stuck in the lights since, since… 1962?” Mike asks. 

“Yeah” Eddie responds.

Richie stirs, still sleeping against Eddie’s chest, for a moment before settling down again. 

“Wow” Bev says. 

“How did you meet him then” Stan asks for a third time. 

“Richie wasn’t joking when he said it was some ‘Twilight Zone shit’ earlier. It might sound crazy, but I kept having this nightmare, where I saw him, with white eyes and his mouth-“ Eddie cuts off taking a breath. 

“His mouth, it was sewn shut. I felt like he needed my help so I reached out for him but every time I did a gloved hand, the clowns hand, would grab him and pull him away from me. One day though I got to him before the clown could and I grabbed his hand and pulled him towards me. When I woke up, there he was, holding my hand, mouth sewn shut. At first I freaked out but then I realized he was hurting so I helped cut the stitches on his mouth and disinfected it. At first we had to use a notepad to talk in order to let his mouth heal.I accidentally rubbed of the scabs a bit before when I covered his mouth with my hand because he was going to talk about my dreams. That’s pretty much what I know so far”

“That was, that was a lot” Mike says. 

“Do you know how he... died?” Stan asks. 

“You know the Paul Bunyan statue in the park? The clown brought it to life and it stabbed him with the peavey” Eddie stutters out. 

All of the losers wince. 

“I’m really worried about him. He had a nightmare the other day about It and he woke up with white eyes, just like in my dreams. What if he’s still connected to It and the deadlights? He said, in his dream, It said it was coming for him but mostly he was scared because It said it was coming for me too.I know I haven’t known him for long but I can’t lose him” Richie whimpers in his sleep so Eddie runs his fingers through his hair. 

“H-He’s a loser n-now. We’ll help k-keep him s-safe” Bill said and the rest of the losers nod. 

“Thanks you guys, it means a lot” Eddie says. 

“Of course” Ben says. 

Richie sleeps for about an hour before Eddie wakes him up. 

“Rich, wake up”

“Wha-?”

“Richie you have to wake up it’s time to go home”

“Five more minutes” Richie says burrowing into the hammock. 

“Nope, we gotta go, you can sleep at home”

“Ugh fine mom ”

“Shut up”

Richie and Eddie ride back home and sneak past Eddie’s mom and up the stairs. 

“I gotta go shower, wash of all of the quarry. You… just stay here I guess” Eddie says. 

“What’s that supposed to mean? Scared I’ll go all Psycho on you and murder you in the shower”

“No, just, never mind”

Eddie showers and then forces Richie to do the same.

“It’s been twenty seven years since you’ve showered. That’s fucking disgusting”

“Oh Eds I think you like it when I’m dirty” Richie says and Eddie blushes. 

“Don’t call me that. Go shower or else your not allowed to sleep in my bed”

“Oh I see how it is” Richie says with an exaggerated wink. 

“What’s that supposed to mean” Eddie asks but Richie is already in the bathroom. Richie showers and they regroup in Eddie’s room when they here a knock on The door. The hypochondriac shoves the other boy into his closet before opening the door. 

“Yes mommy?”

“Did I hear you take two showers?” His mom asks 

“Um… yes. You can never be too clean” Eddie responds, making his mom smile. 

“Good boy. Goodnight Eddie”

“Night mommy”

She leaves the room and Richie comes out of the closet (ha). 

“‘Good boy’, she talks to you like she’s praising a puppy”

“Ugh don’t remind me”

They both crawl into the bed. 

“Night ‘Chee”

“Night Eds”

Eddie wakes up with a numb arm, he must have slept on it wrong he thinks. He looks over to see Richie laying on his arm. Gently, he pulls his arm out from under the other boy causing him to roll over, laying his head against Eddie’s chest. 

“Eddiebear! I’m heading out to meet my friends!” Sonia calls from downstairs 

“Ok Mom!” Eddie yells back. 

“Sorry for the rude awaking Rich” Eddie whispers. 

Richie doesn’t respond. 

“Come on Richie it’s time to get up” Eddie says.

No response. 

“Richie?”

Eddie pushes Richie over on to his back. 

“Wake up Richie”

No response. Eddie tries shaking him, causing Richie to open his eyes and all Eddie sees is white. 

_ “Richieeee. Where are you?” Pennywises voice echos through the pipes. Richie is running through the sewers desperately trying to avoid the clown.  _

_ “Don’t you want to come play Richie? We can all play together and float together? Don’t you miss floating Richie?” _

_ Richie turns the corner only to find a dead end.  _

_ “Oh Richie, this game of hide and seek has been awfully fun, but it looks like it’s coming to an end!” _

_ “Get away from me!” Richie yells.  _

_ “That’s not very nice. Maybe I should try looking like someone you like?” The clown says, shifting himself to look like Eddie.  _

_ “Now don’t you want me near you Richie?” _

_ “Go away!” _

_ He shifts back to pennywise.  _

_ “Fine. Maybe someone else will play with me. Maybe Eddie will want to play” _

_ “Leave him alone!” _

_ “Oh Richie, you just couldn’t keep your big mouth shut could you? You should have left those stitches in, they were such an improvement” _

_ The clown disappears for a minute before returning, holding Eddie by the arm.  _

_ “Please! Just leave him alone” _

_ Pennywise smiles for a second before taking a bite out of Eddie’s shoulder.  _

_ “NO!” _

_ Eddie falls to the cave floor gasping when the clown takes another large bite off of Eddie’s other shoulder.  _

_ “No! Eddie please don’t-“ _

_ The ground is flooding with blood by the time light leaves Eddie’s eyes. Richie collapses to the ground crying.  _

_ “Seen you soon!” the clown says leaving Richie with Eddie’s body.  _

_ “I’m so sorry Eddie. I didn’t mean to bring you into this” Richie lies down next to Eddie’s body and closed his eyes.  _

Eddie calls over all the losers to try and help him with Richie. 

“I just woke up today and looked over and his eyes were white. I don’t know what’s wrong with him!”

“I-it’ll b-be okay Eddie w-we’ll figure this o-out” Bill says 

“Did you try shaking him?” Stan leans over Richie. 

“Of course I tried that! It didn’t work”

Stan squints his eyes for a minute before slapping Richie. 

“Stan! What the fuck!” Eddie yells. 

“Sorry I thought it might work”

Tears begin leaking out of the corners of Richie’s eyes. 

“Please guys! Last time this happened he woke up sobbing. I don’t even want to think about what might be going through this time. Does anyone have any ideas?”

All the losers shake their heads no except Stan. 

“Maybe if we ask pennywise...?”

“No fucking way! He’s the reason Richie’s like this!”

“Exactly, so the clown should know how to fix it”

“But there’s no way he’ll tell us”

“It’s our only hope”

“So what, are we just gonna knock on the Neibolt house and say ‘please help us Mr. child devouring space clown’?”

“I guess so”

“We should bring some sort of weapon though”

Eddie looks around the room and grabs baseball bat his mom never let him use, a pointy trophy, a fire poker, a lamp stand, an umbrella, and a curtain rod. He then proceeds to hand each of these out to the losers, keeping the lamp stand for himself. 

“We are utterly fucked”

“How are we gonna bring Richie with us?”

“I guess we’ll just have to take turns carrying him”

Eventually, the losers all make it to the sewers with an unconscious Richie who they lay against a wall. 

“Looks like you all made it! I’m so glad that Richie made some friends, otherwise I’d have no one to play with” Pennywise giggles out. “Richie and I are best friends, I even know his dirty little secret”

“What did you do to him?!” Eddie demands. 

“Oh Eddie, I had to get you down here somehow. Besides he’s perfect now! So quiet, not talking out of his gross trashmouth” the clown says. 

“Shut up!” Eddie shouts. 

“I’ll tell you what, I’ll show you how to fix him and in return, Eddie stays here to play with me” Pennywise negotiates. 

“Th-there’s n-no w-way we’re agreeing t-to th-that!” Bill says. 

“I’ll do it” Eddie states. 

He begins walking over to pennywise. 

“Don’t do it Eddie” Stan says, grabbing Eddie’s shoulder. 

“I have to. For Richie”

“Richie wouldn’t want this” Bev says. 

“We’ll we can ask him because he’s stuck in the deadlights seeing who knows what!” Eddie yells. 

He finally walks over, standing behind Pennywise.

“Now tell us how to fix him!”

“Oh silly, silly Eddie, it’s just like a child’s book. Only true love’s kiss can wake the sleeping beauty. Except that’s Richie’s dirty little secret. Richie is a fag!”

The losers look surprised for a second. 

“We don’t care!” Ben speaks up. “We love him. He’s a loser!”

Eddie uses the curtain rod and smacks Pennywise on the head from behind before jumping on It’s back. Pennywise turns into a mummy so Ben smashes the umbrella over its head while Mike stabs it with the fire poker. Pennywise backs up and slams its back against the wall causing Eddie to fall off its back. Next it turns into the flute woman but Stan smacks it with the baseball bat and Bill stabs it with the trophy. It turns into the man from the pharmacy and Bev hits it with the lamp stand. They take turns hitting it until It backs up to a hole and leaps over the edge, grabbing the side last minute and whispers “fear” before letting go. The losers make their way over to Richie. 

“So... who’s going to kiss Richie?” Mike asks. 

“Bev?”

Bev walks over and kisses Richie in the lips. 

“It didn’t work!” Eddie yells.

“Well maybe because I don’t love him in that way. Maybe it has to be true love”

“What are we supposed to do then?” Eddie asks. 

Everyone stares at him. 

“Eddie, we all know you love him” Stan says. 

“I love all of you” Eddie responds. 

“No Eddie, love-love him”

“What I-“

“Don’t try and deny it Eddie. We all know and we’re ok with it. It might be the only way to wake him up”

“…fine”

Eddie leans over and presses his lips to Richie’s only for Richie to shove him off screaming. 

“Get away from me!” Richie shouts

“Richie I’m sorry I-“ Eddie starts

“No! You don’t get to do that! You don’t get to fucking wear his face after what you did to him!”

“Wait what-“

“You-you took away the only one I ever loved! Please just-just stop” Richie stutters before breaking out into sobs.

“Richie what ever you saw it wasn’t real” Bev says. 

“No. Your not real” Richie says back seeming more and more exhausted. 

“Richie I promise I’m here and I’m real” Eddie states. 

“E-Eddie? No. Eddie would never kiss me” Richie responds and Eddie blushes. 

“Rich I-I like you. Like-like you”

Richie looks confused. 

“It’s not like he was trying to hide it” Stan says to which Bill punches him in the arm. 

“I’m so sorry Richie, you just wouldn’t wake up and I thought that maybe, since I like you, kissing you would wake you up which it did wake you up but I really hope this doesn’t ruin our friendship because I’d rather be friends with you then not have you in my life at all but-“

“Eds. Stop”

Eddie clamps his mouth shut. 

“I like-like you too” Richie says

“You do?”

“I do”

“Wait, Richie, what was your dream about” Stan asks

“It was about Eddie,” 

Eddie takes Richie’s hand and Richie gives him a sad smile. 

“It was there and it looked made itself look like Eddie. I yelled at It so it changed back into a clown but then it had Eddie and it-it killed him”

Tears stream down Richie’s face. Eddie takes Richie’s face in his hands and presses a kiss to his forehead. 

They walk to the quarry where they make a blood oath. 

“If it ever comes back we’ll come back too” Bev says. 

They all cut their palms and holds hands.

Richie gets on the back of Eddie’s bike and they head back to Eddie’s house. By the time they get back, it’s late so they shower and climb into Eddie’s bed. Eddie smiles at Richie and he smiles back, and they fall asleep knowingthat no matter what, they’ll be together. 

**Author's Note:**

> And that’s that. Liked it? Hated it? Tell me. Also sorry if the ending seemed abrupt  
> I tried to reference some 60s’ things for Richie I think I got Twilight Zone, Psycho, and James Bond even though I’ve only ever seen twilight zone
> 
> Join my supernatural discord! https://discord.gg/6CvFtU4Y


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